Love is Weakness
by tangelo314
Summary: For Cato, the Hunger Games is a dream come true. But he's never experience feeling quite like what he's starting to feel for his District partner, a quiet, mysterious girl named Clove. Clato fanfic, rated T for Violence.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey guys! Thanks to everyone (3 people) who voted on my poll. Clato won, so here it is! And for everyone who read the first chapter of my story, Inescapable, I'm sorry, that is currently on hold.

**This is co-authored by a friend of mine who doesn't have an FF account, so I can't give her a shoutout :(**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction. :-|**

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Chapter One: Enchanted

"Hey, Cato!" shouts my best friend, Gladius.

"Hey." I walk over to him.

"So, you ready?"

"Ready for what?"

He laughs as if I said something ridiculous. "The announcement, of course! Everyone knows they're going to pick you to volunteer this year." Oh yeah. The reaping. Every year they pick-

Well, maybe I should start at the beginning. My name is Cato Ludwig. I live in Panem, a place that used to be called North America. I don't know if that means there is a South America too, as I've never been outside of my hometown, District 2. Panem is divided into fourteen sections: a Capitol and thirteen districts. 74 years ago, there was a rebellion among the districts. District 2 was the only one smart enough to go back to the Capitol. With our weapons, the Capitol won the war and destroyed District 13. But that wasn't the end. To punish the Districts, the Capitol started the Hunger Games. Every year, each District must send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to compete in a fight to the death. In the end there is only one survivor. In most Districts, the little wimps spend their time hoping they don't get Reaped. But here in District 2, people don't want to be picked for a different reason. Winning is a huge honor. But if you get reaped, someone is likely to volunteer, and you won't be able to participate. In the past, we had some problems with the number of volunteers. So this year, our trainers decided to hold a contest. Everyone who was planning on volunteering would take a series of physical tests. The guy and the girl who got the highest scores would volunteer. Gladius and I were at the pre-Games party, where they would soon announce who was to volunteer.

I look around. Music is playing and couples are dancing. I notice a girl standing off to the side with a bored expression on her face. She has long brown hair and is dressed in a leather jacket and jeans, with a simple green t-shirt that makes her eyes sparkle. Gladius sees me looking at her and rolls his eyes.

"That's Clove Fuhrman. Her nickname is Four Leaf Clover 'cause it's rumored that she keeps four knives with her at all times. She's only 16, but she'll probably win the volunteering contest next year."

"She's kinda pretty," I remark.

Gladius stares at me, dumbfounded. "Are you serious? You, Cato Ludwig, are the toughest guy in the academy, you could get any girl you wanted, and you go for Clover?"

"Well, no. I just think she's kinda-"

"Are you gonna ask her to dance or what?"

"What?"

"Ask her!"

"But you just said-"

"I'm bipolar, man, now go!"

Okay. I need to make some new friends. Gladius is insane. I look over at that Clove girl again. I don't know what I was thinking when I said she's kinda pretty. She's beautiful.

I walk up to her. "Hi. I'm Cato Ludwig."

She glances at me. "Hi?"

"Umm...You're Clove, right?"

She looks at me, her eyebrows raised. "Yes...?"

"Uhh...Would you...care to dance...with me?" I cringe. That didn't come out right. I wasn't supposed to be nervous... I'm Cato! I straighten my back and look her in the eyes.

The corners of her mouth relax into a grin. "Sure, why not?" I take her hand and lead her to the dance floor. I put my other hand on her waist and we start dancing to a slow song. Forward, back, forward, back. One, two, three, One, two, three. I spin her, and it feels so natural when she spins back around and faces me, her hazel eyes sparkling. Before I knew it, the dance was over. I smile and say goodbye to Clove. I walk back over to Gladius, who's watching with a smile on his face. He opens his mouth to say something, but he's cut off by loud voice.

"Okay, guys and gals! The time you have all been waiting for HAS COME! I am going to announce the lucky winners of our first annual volunteering contest! I am proud to announce that the male tribute representing us iiiiis...CATO LUDWIG!" I'm blinded by the spotlight hitting me. There's a ton of cheering and clapping.

Gladius grins. "Congrats, man!"

I'm overcome with all the thoughts and emotion soaring through me. I'd known this was going to happen, so why am I so surprised? I guess it's because my biggest dreams are finally playing out. I am going to compete in the Hunger Games!


	2. Chapter 2

I meet Gladius in front of the training center. We start dueling, and I beat Gladius in about three seconds.

"How about we pitch the deadliest girl against the deadliest guy?" suggests Gladius, gesturing towards me. I give him a death stare, but all the others are agreeing. I can't look like a coward, so I step in the circle and face Clove, who tosses her long brown hair. She's trying to get me worried, but seriously? She's just a girl. Clove looks me up and down, then puts her sword down and grabs a small dagger.

Okay, really? That's just an insult.

"All right," I say, and pick up a knife, even though I could have stuck with my sword. The rules are kind of vague in balancing the odds. After all, you never know what weapons you'll have in real combat.

We square off. Clove smiles evilly and opens her jacket, where she had hidden an assortment of throwing knives. My jaw drops. That's not fair! I try not to let it get to me. I grab my sword off the table and quickly swing it to block a knife whizzing toward me. Then I tackle her. She immediately falls to the ground. I grab my sword and get ready to plunge it into her armor when she kicks it aside, rolls over, and stabs me in the leg. I ignore the pain and use brute force to grab her from behind, almost snapping her tiny shoulder. I put my sword to her throat but she blocks the blade with two knives and ducks under my arm. Enraged, I swing my sword, but she's too fast. I lunge again and she drops to the floor. She sweeps her legs out and knocks mine from under me, sending me crashing to the floor. In a flash, she's standing over me, pinning me to the floor with her knives.

I walk to Gladius and don't say a word. He finally says something when we are about three blocks from our houses.

"It's okay," says Gladius as we were walking home. "People will think you let her win. No one could possibly think you would be bested by a scrawny female."

For some reason, that makes me mad. Anger seeps through me as I retort, "She's not THAT small." Suddenly Gladius turns to me.

"You-you...the way you acted earlier...and right now...whoa. You have a crush on Clove!" I gasp, and hit him. Hard.

"I do not. Say that again and your neck will have a friendly meeting with my spear." I snap. But the truth was..I wasn't sure. Whenever I saw her, my heart raced and I felt myself blush, almost as if...No. Love is weakness. And weak is one thing I cannot be.

"See you tomorrow," I say, ignoring my past words.

"Kay, Meet you at the green post at 7:30..." He replies

"Sharp," I say, glaring at him, yesterday he was late, and today Gladius had to get there earlier, as he had some assisting work to do with the young ones. I walk up the wooden steps of my house.

I knock on the steel door and wait until my older sister finally cares enough to open it. She stares at me with her deep brown eyes, and blond ponytails. Gosh her eyes look a lot like... Nope. Nevermind.

"Thanks," I manage to mumble as I slipped past her.

I walk to the lofty area in our wooden cottage and lie on the straw mattress, thinking about Clove. Do I like her? Nah... But do I really? UGH! I don't want to like her, because falling in love with a girl is just going to make me weaker... I need to be strong. My mom calls us to get our food. Just stale bread again. I wish I could go outside the fences to hunt, It'll prepare me for the games AND get us some decent meat.

But I don't complain. At least I HAVE food. I grab the slice off of the woven straw mat. Practically everything we have is made of straw, or wood. All metal is used for is training weapons. I walk back to my bed and sit down underneath the painting on the wall. When we were better off my mom bought paints all the time. One day when I was five it was my first day of training and I was really excited so when I was gone my mom painted a silver axe right above my bed. It's still there, though a lot of it has peeled off and the wood is chipping.

I decide to pretend to sleep, and listen to my sister and mom talk. "Hey mom, you think he's asleep?" She blurts aloud.

"Shh! Quiet he can wake up any moment!" My mom says as if I'm some sort of animal.

I'm pretty sure everyone except the people I know in the training center think that I'm an animal. A monster more likely. I act like I am a emotionless killing machine around those people. I'm only my normal self at the training center.

"So how's training?" My mom whispers.

"Cool, we finally broke out the real weapons," she replies.

"Annie, I really don't think that you should be training with the-"

"Boys," Annie cuts her off, "I know you think that they are too tough but in the hunger games we'll be fighting against EVERYONE. Boys, Girls, Animals, and Monsters."

Oh right, I forgot. In training, you start off in groups, a boy group, and a girl group. You finally go to co-ed when you are in the 17-18 group. Annie is 17, in the 16-17 BOYS group, if you couldn't tell already. Though she is a year younger than me, she looks like she's twenty. Muscular, tall, I bet half of the guys in MY class are scared of her. My mom is worried about her, though I'm not sure why she is.

"I just don't want you to get hurt..."

"Mom, I'll be fine. Anyways, apparently there is always one mace in the games, an iron one. Not just the cheap old lead ones we have here. Either way, I'll still beat people to the ground with one."

"Honey, Violence shouldn't be a part of life for a young-"

"MOM! STOP! I'M SEVENTEEN I'LL BE FINE! I'M NOT A WIMP!" She screams.

Mom looks over here worried but I just slowly turn over.

"Sorry Mom, It's just that you don't have to be so worried, I'll be fine."

"Okay, Honey."

That's the last words I heard before my eyes drooped down and I slept.


End file.
